Many major Internet players endorsed Microsoft’s April, 2016 lawsuit against the US that the SCA (Stored Communications Act) (part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) 18 U.S.C. § 2705(b)) violates the First and Fourth Amendments since the Constitution should “afford people and businesses the right to know if the government searches or seizes their property.” On September 2, 2016 an Amicus Brief was filed by “Amazon.com, Box, Cisco Systems, Dropbox, Evernote, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Salesforce, Snapchat, and Yahoo” believe that:
…that their customers have a right to be informed of government searches of their private data and that amici have a right to inform them.
Also the Brief included these comments to clarify their position:
Amici respect the important work that law enforcement agencies do every day.
Technology companies like amici have, or in the future may have, obligations under the Stored Communications Act and other laws to deliver customer data to law enforcement in response to proper legal process, and amici take these obligations seriously.
Many amici have full-time teams of employees—with someone on duty or on call around the clock—dedicated to responding to law enforcement requests for data.
Indeed, in just the last six months of 2015, amici collectively responded to tens of thousands of U.S. government data requests in criminal investigations.
Many amici also publish guidelines for law enforcement that explain their products, describe what customer data can be requested through legal process, and set out how best to serve process on the company.
Amici, in short, have no desire to shield criminals.
This is a very important case to follow.